GOQBOT

Stopping a soft-bodied robot for National Geographic.

National Geographic Photo Editor Susan
Welchman asked us to capture a speedy robot caterpillar on video and in a still
photograph.

The GoQBot, a “soft-bodied” robot,
developed by researcher Huai-Ti Lin at Tufts University, is modeled on a real
caterpillar that may be the fastest low-roller in the world. To avoid a
predator, the caterpillar curls into a donut shape and shoots over the ground
at top speed. It all happens in a fraction of a second.

In order to get enough frames in this
tiny amount of time, we decided to use video instead of a stills camera. Shooting 60fps, we were able to pull
out individual shots of each moment of the roll.

Huai-Ti was the perfect collaborator.
Having created the GoQBot, he had great suggestions on how best to record its
actions. GoQBot couldn’t leave the lab so we ran lighting rehearsals in our
studio with a dummy worm. We built a miniature set to give a sense of distance
traveled. On the day of the shoot, we moved our lighting and set into the tiny
lab. Huai-Ti had the GoQBot curl and roll again and again until we recorded an
“escape” that we all liked.

That same day we interviewed Huai-Ti
and the project’s director Barry Trimmer. The photographs appeared in National
Geographic magazine and the video on the magazine’s website.